Considering Transcendence has become something of a gateway into the roguelike genre for many, I thought it might be good to have a thread to discuss our favorite roguelikes, and share our appreciation for this relatively unexplored genre.

Aside from the obvious(Transcendence's inspiration, nethack), what are some roguelikes that you're especially fond of? Any you consider particularly interesting?
Here are two of the ones I think are worth sharing, especially with other people new to the genre:

- Cardinal Quest is a browser roguelike with very simple mechanics, that still captures the feel of the genre very well.

- I'd hesitate to call Untrusted a roguelike, but it definitely takes inspiration from the genre. Given how many programmers our modding community has attracted, I'm sure at least a few people will like it. It's very short, so you'll definitely not be out much time if it turns out you don't.

I've mostly glanced-off true roguelikes.....made it far enough in nethack to beat a bugbear to death with a cursed rusty tin opener but not much further. Closest I've come is Dwarf Fortress....but I've never played adventurer mode so it may not count. I play it with the stock tileset and no utility mods though so I get some hardcore points there at least.

In terms of the more modern roguelikes ("roguelites" or "roguelikelike").....FTL is fantastic albiet almost impossible to win at times. Sunless Sea is also pretty neat although the combat system is still pretty clunky. In terms of up-and-coming releases I heartily recommend The Curious Expedition, which is currently one of the more interesting early-access (or Games in Development, if you're buying DRM-free through GOG) titles. In theory you can probably get through all 6 expeditions in a game in a fairly short amount of time. Almost always, however, you'll end up with your crew eating each other and going insane, falling into bottomless pits, starting fires, getting eaten by hyenas and annoying the locals into killing you. It's great fun.

Back in the BBS days I liked playing Elynthia. I've looked for a hint of it's existence and so far have come up with zip (no, not a .zip). Oddly enough that's why I like the Civ series, they're all rogue like, as well as the sim series (sim ant is my fave).
I wish there was a random map option for Total Annihilation.

It's based on older games like Strategic Conquest that helped popularize the "fog-of-war" concept where the player has to discover more about the world by exploring it. Maps are randomly generated based on criteria that the user provides at the beginning of each game.

The goal of the game is to capture cities and increase military production until you can eliminate all of your enemies.

I don't know if you would count it, but Darkest Dungeon is one of my favorite games of all time! Rogue Legacy was also pretty fun while I played it. There are probably a few more which I could name if you're interested.

My dream is to one day discover that someone who plays transcendence lives near me and goes to my school. Then I can finally have a friend.
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Why must I keep running into that wall, impossibility?

They're really not. The worlds aren't procedural and death isn't permanent and they aren't ascii or even tile based. For every possible defining feature of the roguelike genre they do the opposite. They are almost, but not quite, completely unlike Rogue. The manner in which they are similar is that they have swords in them.